- When I was a kid, my mother used to make "fried" apples (actually sort of braised), and I'll still make them as part of breakfast-for-dinner -- unpeeled, cored and sliced, softened in butter and then cooked with brown sugar and a bit of water or cider until they're nice and soft.

- Another childhood favorite is the thing where you butter a slice of bread on both sides, cut a hole in the middle, and break an egg into it. We called it "egg in a nest."

- If I want the kind of meal where I'm going to cook all afternoon, I love the Cook's Illustrated chicken potpie, which is basically a thick chicken stew cooked in a pie shell. As I type this, I'm wondering what would happen if you used some other kind of stew for a potpie? I have a cauliflower-and-cheese soup recipe that I'm very fond of; if I left some of the vegetables chunky, instead of pureeing the whole thing, would that make a decent potpie? Or is meat required?

1. 2. 3. mific: Do you enjoy Christmas more, or less, now the kidlet's older?4. armadillo1976: Dec 4. From the perspective of a parent of a big(ish) kid, what do you remember most/best from the time your kid was 1-2?(Asking as a mom of a 1.5 year old, terrified that she is going to forget all the love and beauty and mess of these times...)5. grammarwoman: what's a go-to comfort meal for you?6. cesperanza: What three things do you find unexpectedly sexy?7. jesse_the_k: What's a garment that's well-loved by fandom, to the point of fanonization, that you really don't care for. Examples might be Fraser's hat; Ronon's gun; Sherlock's coat... 8. monanotlisa: What's the hardest thing to write for you, and how do you get around it and yet write it?9. china_shop: Thoughts about writing original fic vs writing fanfic, whether it's different processes, different feelings (or the same process, and the same feelings), or whatever.10. julad: What was publishing Exog like for you? The good, the not so good, the unexpected.11. reginagiraffe: what was the best birthday present you ever got? (You can supply your own definition of "best".)12. james: Is there a tv show or movie that you would pay a billion dollars to get either a re-working of an episode or a sequel to? (It might not cost that much. Millions.) Because sometimes fanfic isn't enough, you just need to see it on-screen.13. mific: If you had to give up one of your 5 senses (you know, to save Atlantis or Benton Fraser's life, or suchlike), which would it be and why?14. james: Which (if any) Harry Potter book is the best totally on its own, with no meta or context or fanfic to bolster it up?15. james: Who is the most obscure composer, band, or individual musician that you adore?16. zulu: best vacation/break you ever had?17.18. kass: What do you enjoy most about parenting a kidlet of this age?19. kass: what fannish character is bringing you the most joy right now?20.21. 22.23.24.25.26.27. muccamukk: Moments in canon that still emotionally resonate with you, many years later.28.29.30.31.

I've cooked this vegan pot pie at least a dozen times since I discovered it a few months ago. I've gotten to the point of using it as the base recipe to get rid of various frozen vegetables that my mom bought and that I don't really like: Oriental vegetables and French cut green beans with red pepper flakes and extra garlic and no bay leaves; Italian vegetables with Italian seasoning, oregano, and parsley added to both the biscuits and the filling; etc.

So far they've all turned out delicious. I definitely encourage pot pie experimentation.

Hm. Probably not the specific preparation we had at Thanksgiving, because the squash chunks were large enough to keep that squash flavor at the forefront, but perhaps if the squash was cut smaller and the other components of the filling were more present. Ooh, what if the squash was roasted with garlic prior to going in the crust... maybe with sage and fresh thyme tying it together with the gravy... I may have to experiment with this.